Abbas Khan: Doctor's death in Syria 'in effect murder'

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British doctor Abbas Khan has been "in effect murdered" by the Syrian authorities just days before his expected release from jail, Foreign Office Minister Hugh Robertson said.

He said the death of the 32-year-old orthopaedic surgeon from south London was "at best extremely suspicious".

Mr Khan was arrested last year in Aleppo where he was helping civilians.

Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said Mr Khan committed suicide using his pyjamas to hang himself.

He said the results of an autopsy proved this, and Mr Khan's body would be released to his family so they could conduct their own inquiry.

One of Mr Khan's brothers, Shahnawaz Khan, said it was "a lie" and "pure fiction" that his brother committed suicide as he had written to his family saying he was looking forward to coming home and spending Christmas with them.

'No excuse'

The doctor's relatives had been told he would be freed on Friday following an order from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Robertson said the government was seeking "urgent clarification" about what had happened to Mr Khan, originally from Streatham.

"There is no excuse whatsoever for the treatment that he has suffered by the Syrian authorities who have in effect murdered a British national who was in their country to help people who were injured during their civil war."He said: "We can't at the moment be absolutely certain about the circumstances in which Dr Khan met his death, but what is clear is that he went to Syria on a humanitarian mission, was imprisoned by the Syrian authorities and met his death while he was in prison in circumstances that are at best extremely suspicious.

'Summarily executed'

Respect MP George Galloway, who has liaised with the Syrian authorities and was due to collect Mr Khan on Friday, said the death was "murder most foul" and it was "inconceivable that he committed suicide".

The MP for Bradford West said he believed somebody within the regime had killed Mr Khan to defy President Assad's decision to release him.

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The former British Foreign Office minister, Alistair Burt, who handled Mr Khan's case up until two months ago, said he does not believe the Syrian government's version.

He said: "The chances of this poor man killing himself when there was a possibility of release seems very remote.

"Had he thought there was a chance of release and return to the United Kingdom, he would most certainly have wanted to do so. In some way he has been killed by the Syrian authorities and they bear the entire responsibility for his death."

BBC correspondent Paul Wood, reporting from Beirut, said Mr Khan could have been a casualty of a power struggle between the Syrian president and his own security services.

He said: "Only President Assad could have ordered the doctor's release. If he did so it may well have been a goodwill gesture in the run up to peace talks that Britain is helping to organise.

"Some in the regime perhaps do not want those talks to succeed."

Shahnawaz Khan said his mother was in a "state of shock and disbelief".

"She was readying herself to bring her son home in four days time after 13 months of a rollercoaster of emotions," he said.

"To be so close and then to be robbed of it is almost the cruellest way it could possibly happen."

Shahnawaz Khan said his brother was summarily executed

He rejected the Syrian government's claim of suicide, saying it was a "complete fiction" and "utter nonsense and I would ardently deny anything of that scenario".

"We have letters from [my brother] from last week, looking forward to coming home for Christmas, spending Christmas together and starting the new year fresh, he's been in the best spirits he's been in in the last 13 months and he is not a man to give in like that."

Extracts of a letter dated 4 December, shown to the BBC, which appear to be from Mr Khan to his six year old daughter Ruqquaya, reads: "To Ruqqa, thank you for your lovely drawing of everyone.

"Inshallah I will soon come home and give you a big hug and kiss."

He also wrote: "I think the decision to release me has been taken - just some formalities... Inshallah."

On claims that the doctor might have links to jihadi groups, Shahnawaz Khan said: "Again, this is pure fiction and it is an easy excuse to make about an individual who they have summarily executed in effect without due process".

Mr Khan accused the UK government of treating his brother's case "like he's been some wayward traveller in Dubai being caught drunk and contravened some sort of trivial law in Syria".

The family had received "very little assistance", he added.

Mr Khan was looking forward to spending Christmas with his family

Mr Khan, who worked at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, north-west London, was detained 48 hours after entering Syria last November.

He had been moved by the plight of refugees and worked in refugee camps in Turkey, his family said. He had not planned to go to Syria but travelled there to treat badly injured civilians.

Earlier this year, his mother - who has spent the last four months in Damascus - found him in a prison in the city weighing just five stone (32kg) and barely able to walk.

He claimed he had been tortured while being detained without charge, and had been held for much of the time on his own.

Mr Khan was one of seven brothers and sisters and is survived by his wife Hanna, his seven-year-old son Abdullah and daughter Ruqquaya, aged six.

John McAfee seeking asylum in Guatemala

The millionaire software tycoon John McAfee has fled Belize and is now in Guatemala, where he is attempting to seek political asylum, it wasrevealed last night.

Software company founder John McAfee, left, accompanied by his lawyer Telesforo Guerra, right, answers questions during an interview at a local restaurant in Guatemala City

Mr McAfee, who made his fortune designing anti-virus computer software, has hired Telesforo Guerra, the former attorney general of Guatemala, as his lawyer.

Mr Guerra told AFP that he met with Mr McAfee at a Guatemala City hotel on Tuesday. He said, "I have to manage his political asylum."

Mr McAfee, 67, has been on the run since his neighbour, the American businessman Gregory Viant Faull, was shot dead last month.

Police in Belize, where the murder took place, say he is not a suspect, but Mr McAfee believes he will be "summarily executed" if he hands himself in.

Belize's prime minister has denied the claim and called the 67-year-old paranoid and "bonkers".

But Mr McAfee insists he will not submit to police questioning. "They have killed many people who've turned themselves in," he said.

"The last one was a gentleman ... who turned himself in. They just wanted him for questioning. They handcuffed his hands behind his back and shot him 14 times."

Mr McAfee's arrival in Guatemala comes after days of confusion and secrecy about his whereabouts. His official blog initially claimed he had been captured at the border with Mexico, something the police denied.

But a later blog post by Mr McAfee claimed that the man arrested in Mexico was his 'double' who had deliberately been arrested in an attempt to fool the authorities into thinking they had arrested Mr McAfee and thus aiding his escape.

Mr McAfee's new location was inadvertently revealed by journalists from Vice magazine who have spent five days with him. They posted a photograph of him online but failed to remove data which revealed he was in Guatemala.

Initially Mr McAfee claimed that he had doctored the information, again to fool the authorities, but later admitted he was in Guatemala.

Mitt Romney rides new wave of popularity as poll numbers surge

Mitt Romney was riding a surge in US presidential opinion polls sowing panic through the Democratic ranks by overtaking Barack Obama in several surveys a month before Election Day.

The Republican challenger, who had trailed Mr Obama for months, won sharp swings in support thanks to his victory last week in the contest's first televised debate, according to three nationwide polls.

He led the President by four percentage points nationwide, according to Pew, a non-partisan organisation, which had Mr Obama leading by eight points in mid-September. PPP, a Left-leaning pollster, found the Republican's national lead was three points, while Gallup put it at two points.

Rasmussen, a Right-leaning group, said Mr Romney also led by two points across the 11 battleground states likely to decide the election,having overtaken Mr Obama for the first time in three weeks.

Aides to Mr Romney said swing voters were giving him "another look" after months of attacks from Mr Obama. "Governor Romney offered voters a choice between someone with a plan to turn our economy around and a President who is offering four more years of the last four years," said a spokesman.

However, detailed breakdowns of the results indicated that the former Massachusetts governor faced a challenge to maintain his bounce in support, according to several pollsters.

PPP said that while he led by five points among voters surveyed last Friday, by the weekend his advantage had fallen to half a point. Two daily tracker polls found the candidates were tied.

Supporters of Mr Obama none the less claimed his campaign was in crisis after a disastrous showing in the debate in Denver, where he was widely judged to have failed to lay a glove on his opponent.

Andrew Sullivan, a prominent British-born commentator and vocal Obama supporter, spearheaded the doom-mongering with an article asking: "Did Obama just throw the entire election away?"

"On every single issue, Obama has instantly plummeted into near-oblivion," he wrote. "I've never seen a candidate self-destruct for no external reason this late in a campaign before".

The President's re-election team also invited ridicule by focusing on Mr Romney's pledge to cut public funding for PBS, the television network behind Sesame Street, the popular children's programme.

An Obama campaign video mocking Mr Romney for viewing the Sesame Street character Big Bird as a "big, yellow menace to our economy" was sharply criticised by the candidate during a rally in Iowa.

"These are tough times," Mr Romney told supporters. "So you have to scratch your head when the president spends the last week talking about saving Big Bird."

The Obama campaign later received a legal demand from the programme to take down their clip.

Mr Romney's team is hoping that Paul Ryan, his running mate, can extend their advantage with a commanding performance over Vice President Joe Biden in their sole debate on Thursday evening.

The turnaround in the Republican's fortunes has coincided with his abrupt tack to the centre on several political issues, and a move to telling personal anecdotes on the campaign trail.

It has been credited to three members of his inner circle. His eldest son Taggart is said to have jostled his way to a position of influence over paid advisers who wanted a relentless focus on the economy.

Known as "Tagg", the 42-year-old financier was said by Politico to have urged his father to relax, be himself and shut out the contradictory advice being thrown at him before his campaign events.

Introducing their father in Iowa yesterday, Josh, the 36-year-old middle son, risked angering the Obama campaign by saying that as boys the brothers had shown him "how to debate an obstinate child."

Tagg's efforts are believed to have been reinforced by Mr Romney's wife, Ann, who has tirelessly worked to publicise the human side of a candidate frequently criticised for his awkward robotic manner.

Hailing Mr Romney as a "man of character whose heart is in the right place," Mrs Romney yesterday described her pain at the Obama campaign's portrayal of him as a ruthless corporate raider.

"When you love someone, know so deeply that they are a good person and are doing the right things, it's tough to watch them get unfairly attacked," she wrote in a post on blogher, a women's website. "But it is tougher to see how many families in our country have struggled in the last four years".

Praise has also gone to Rob Portman, a US Senator for Ohio, who plays Mr Obama in Mr Romney's debate rehearsals. Mr Portman tests the candidate with such stinging Obama-style attacks that Mr Romney jokes to supporters that he has been reduced to tears.

Francois Hollande falls into 'trap' to look like 'dwarf' alongside Coldstream Guards

Francois Hollande has been ridiculed in France for allowing himself to look like a "dwarf" alongside the Coldstream Guards – the battalion that won battle honours at Waterloo and then occupied Paris.

During an official visit to London on Tuesday, the French president inspected a Guard of Honour from the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards at the Foreign Office.

He then appeared in photographs alongside Major General George Norton, who looked around two feet taller than the Gallic head of state.

Comments alongside the image on a website of pictures taken by AFP, France's national news agency, suggested Hollande had fallen into a "trap" made to make him look ridiculous.

"Poor France," wrote Jean-Marc Rameau, from Paris, while Dmitri Kovaley mocked Mr Hollande, who is 5ft 7 ins, with the words "Dwarfs rule the world".

There were also references to Gulliver's Travels, while others noted how the 5ft 5 ins Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Hollande's predecessor, made huge efforts to disguise his small stature.

These included everything from standing on tiptoe and wooden boxes, as well as wearing stacked heels.

"I find it ridiculous, not because of (Mr Hollande's) size, but because he falls easily into the traps that Sarkozy knew how to avoid," wrote another poster under the name 'Councillor De Mist'.

Sebastien Esteve of Marseilles, meanwhile, suggested that Mr Hollande appeared "smaller than Nicolas Sarkozy" alongside the guardsmen, adding the President wore a "badly cut" suit.

Arguably the greatest military achievement of the Coldstreams was the part they played in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte's army at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

The Coldstreams were part of the 2nd Guards Brigade which famously defended the Hougoumont farmhouse – a key part of the Duke of Wellington's strategy.

Following victory, the regiment then transferred to the French capital, where they humiliated locals further by taking part in the Occupation of the city.

The regiment, the oldest in the regular British Army in continuous active service, defeated the French throughout the Napoleonic Wars, notably in Egypt in the early 19th Century.

Waterloo, which ended Napoleon's reign, is viewed by the French as one their most shameful defeats.

The French dictator became a prisoner of the British on the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, before dying in captivity in 1821, but he is still glorified all over France as a national hero.

Mr Hollande, a 57-year-old Socialist, has suffered numerous picture disasters since replacing Mr Sarkozy as president last May.

Images include Mr Hollande being soaked to the skin by heavy rain during his official inauguration in Paris.

Mr Hollande spent a short period as an officer in the French Army during a period of national service.

Bashar al-Assad warns Turkey to stop 'interfering' in Syria

Bashar al-Assad has accused Turkey of trying to provoke a sectarian war in Syria by arming “terrorists” intent on overthrowing his regime, marking a new low in relations between the two states.

The Syrian president rounded on Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, calling him “two-faced” and claiming that he was was responsible for many of the estimated 16,000 deaths reported since the uprising began.

“With his desire from the beginning to interfere in our internal affairs he has made Turkey a party to all the bloody acts in Syria,” Mr Assad told Cumhuriyet, a Turkish newspaper.

“Turkey has given all kinds of logistical support to the terrorists killing our people.”

The two states are already engaged in a military stand-off along their 550-mile border after Syria shot down a Turkish reconnaissance jet last month.

Turkey has scrambled its air force three times in recent days after Syrian helicopters flew close to the frontier and has also deployed two armoured brigades and anti-aircraft batteries in the border zone.

Though Mr Assad however was careful to express his regret for the downing of the Turkish fighter, his most vehement denunciation of Turkey since the crisis began heightened tensions and is sure to infuriate Ankara, which has already provided sanctuary to Syrian rebels and allowed smuggled arms to cross its border.

The dispute between the two neighbours has given added urgency to Western efforts to end the crisis by forcing Mr Assad to stand down.

Ratcheting up the pressure on Damascus, William Hague yesterday committed the Government to seeking a Chapter 7 United Nations resolution against Syria, the same type used to remove Col Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, if a new plan for a national unity government failed.

Britain and its allies would however add a sub-clause, article 41, to Chapter 7 that rules out the use of armed force. The resolution would threaten the “complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication”.

The Foreign Secretary warned that Britain and its allies would move quickly to seek stronger action at the UN if the plan agreed by world powers at the weekend for Mr Assad to hand over power came to nought.

In that event, “countries like United Kingdom will be seeking a Chapter 7 resolution at the UN Security Council to mandate the implementation of the Annan plan and threaten consequences for those who do not implement it” he told CNN.

“What I’m talking about in the immediate future or near future that should be in such a resolution is sanctions or the threat of sanctions on those not cooperating,” he said, adding that military force could not be ruled out.

The Annan plan did not name Mr Assad, but called for a national unity government formed “by mutual consent” between regime and opposition figures.

Amid a flurry of diplomatic activitiy, Mr Hague met the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius yesterday. They warned Moscow that its support for Mr Assad was futile and was damaging Russian influence in the Middle East.

“Russia must understand that the situation in Syria is heading toward collapse,” said Mr Hague. “There is no point in anyone standing by the Assad regime.”

Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov meanwhile denied speculation that it would offer the beleaguered Syrian leader a home. “The situation with the future of the president of the Syrian Arab Republic is not being discussed with the United States,” he said.

Western diplomats admitted the Russians had been adamant during the Geneva talks that they wouldn’t play host to Mr Assad.

Last month, rumours circulated that American and British officials might be willing to offer Mr Assad clemency and protection from prosecution by the International Criminal Court if he left his post.

Bahrain F1 security stepped up as practice runs begin

Authorities in Bahrain have tightened security ahead of practice sessions for Sunday's Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Anti-government protesters have promised "three days of rage" to coincide with the event.

Correspondents say there is palpable unease about the fate of the race amid escalating unrest and violence.

On Wednesday night, Force India team members were forced to flee as petrol bombs were thrown near their car on their way back from the track.

The four mechanics in a 4x4 were caught in the middle of an incident as police clashed with protesters. Two members of the team have since asked to return home.

Formula 1's governing body, the FIA, only decided to go ahead with this weekend's race at the last minute.

'Down F1'

Bahrain has seen protests against the ruling Sunni al-Khalifa clan for more than a year. Last year's F1 was cancelled after 35 people, including five police, were killed in demonstrations.

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There has been pressure from activists outside and inside Bahrain for the lucrative event to be called off this year as well.

"Formula One in Bahrain has been taken as PR for the ruling elite, the repressive dictators who are ruling the country," said human rights activist Nabeel Rajab at a news conference.

Earlier in the week, Bahraini security forces fired stun grenades at protesters outside a cultural exhibition in Manama.

"A number of rioters and vandals had been arrested for taking part in illegal rallies and gatherings, blocking roads and endangering people's lives by attacking them with petrol bombs, iron rods and stones," the Information Affairs Authority said in a statement, citing Maj-Gen Tariq Al Hassan.

A local journalist said the demonstrators in Old Manama were shouting "Down, down, F1" and demanding the release of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, an activist who has been on hunger strike in prison for more than two months.

Mr Khawaja is now said to be refusing everything except water.

Another protest has been called for 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) outside the Bahrain International Circuit. Correspondents say riot police will have to show restraint with the international media so close at hand.

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Manama says the protesters are determined to use the race to draw attention to their campaign, while the government is determined to stop them.

Bahrain's ruling royal family are being pressured to improve human rights and make reforms by the majority Shia population, who accuse the minority ruling Sunnis of discrimination.

Bo Xilai's wife suspected over 'murder' of Briton

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The wife of a disgraced Chinese politician once tipped as a future leader has been detained over the suspected murder of a British national.

Gu Kailai has been "transferred to the judicial authorities" as part of an investigation into the death of Neil Heywood, state news agency Xinhua said.

Her husband Bo Xilai, former Chongqing party chief, has been stripped of key posts in the ruling Communist Party.

He had been one of China's most popular politicians.

The news that his wife is now a suspect in a murder investigation only intensifies the rumours swirling around him.

Mr Bo, 62, suffered a spectacular fall from grace last month when he was sacked as party chief in Chongqing.

This came after his police chief Wang Lijun spent a day holed up in the US consulate in Chengdu.

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It was rumoured that Mr Wang had been attempting to defect.

The suggestion was that he had been demoted by an angry Mr Bo after the officer had alerted him to the fact that the mayor's family was the subject of a police investigation linked to Mr Heywood's death in November.

While in the consulate Mr Wang alleged that Gu Kailai had been involved in murdering 41-year-old Mr Heywood in Chongqing, Xinhua reported.

Police said after Mr Heywood's death that he had died from excessive drinking and his body was cremated. However, his friends said he did not drink that much.

The new allegations led to a second investigation. Xinhua says this showed that Gu Kailai and her son were in "conflict" with Mr Heywood over "economic issues", and these had intensified despite them being friends.

'Good friend'

Mr Bo has been dismissed from the Communist Party's hugely powerful 25-member Politburo, and the 300-member Central Committee due to suspected "serious discipline violations", Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

The exact nature of Mr Heywood's role and his relations with the family are unclear and have been the subject of much speculation inside and outside China.

"According to reinvestigation results, the existing evidence indicated that Heywood died of homicide, of which [Gu Kailai] and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly at Bo's home, are highly suspected," the news agency reported.

News of the reinvestigation was welcomed by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, who had recently called on the Chinese authorities to look again at Mr Heywood's death.

"The Chinese are doing as we asked them to do and we now look forward to seeing those investigations take place and in due course hearing the outcome of those investigations," he said.

Mr Bo, who made his name taking on corruption in Chongqing, had been expected to be elected to the Politburo's standing committee later this year - as the party prepares for a once-in-a-decade change of leadership.

'Attack on Leon Panetta's plane' at Camp Bastion

An Afghan worker made a deliberate attempt on the life of Leon Panetta as he landed in Helmand after he broke through defences and drove a vehicle towards the American defence secretary’s aircraft, defence sources have disclosed.

Leon Panetta, right, arrives at Camp Bastion

A British serviceman was also injured in the incident when the local employee at Camp Bastion deliberately drove the stolen vehicle into a group of soldiers undergoing training near the airfield.

The Afghan managed to get through the heavy security cordon surrounding the airfield in the middle of the base and onto the runway where the politician was arriving.

He managed to break through the perimeter surrounded by armed security and large concrete block guards.

The truck, possibly a pick-up, caught fire and crashed into a ditch on the runway close to where Mr Panetta’s jet had just landed or was coming into land.

Initial military reports indicate there were no explosive devices inside the vehicle at Camp Bastion. The car was heading towards a welcoming committee for Mr Panetta when it burst into flames and the alleged perpetrator was arrested.

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Security teams dashed across the runway and took the Afghan into custody. It is understood that he was suffering from severe burns. It is not known if he had gunshot injuries or if the gunfire set his vehicle alight and made it crash.

While the Defence Secretary’s visit to Afghanistan was not publicly announced it is understood that it had become known to people in Bastion that he was arriving.

“It appears to be a serious attempt on the aircraft carrying the US Defence Secretary as he was coming in to land,” a defence source said.

“There is a very strong suspicion that he knew Panetta was on the plane

“Although there was no publicity, people on the base knew it was coming.

“This guy just drove through blockade and did not stop.”

A spokesman for the International Security Assistant Force in Kabul said: “ISAF is aware of a stolen vehicle incident today at Camp Bastion, which resulted in the injury of one coalition service member. The alleged perpetrator was apprehended by base security personnel. We are currently investigating to determine more facts.

“This incident took place this afternoon around the same time US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta was arriving in Afghanistan. At no point was the Secretary or anyone on the aircraft in any danger from this incident.”

Nicolas Sarkozy appeals to far-Right saying 'too many immigrants' in France

Nicolas Sarkozy pinned his dwindling hopes of re-election on Tuesday night on wooing the far-Right electorate, saying there are "too many immigrants in France" and that their integration is increasingly failing.

Nicolas Sarkozy (R) waits beside France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy before taking part in the TV broadcast show "Des paroles et des actes'' 

With support for the incumbent conservative ebbing and the victory of Socialist candidate François Hollande looking surer by the day, Mr Sarkozy made a series of proposals aimed at wooing back National Front sympathisers who voted for him en masse in 2007 but have since become disillusioned.

"Our system of integration is working more and more badly, because we have too many foreigners on our territory and we can no longer manage to find them accommodation, a job, a school," Mr Sarkozy said.

The president has clearly veered Right since formally announcing his re-election campaign two weeks ago, and FN candidate Marine Le Pen has accused him of liberally borrowing from her manifesto.

In an almost two-and-a-half hour television grilling, a combative Mr Sarkozy insisted that while immigration could remain "a boon" for France in many areas, it would have to toughen residency qualifications for newcomers.

"Over the five year term I think that to restart the process of integration in good conditions, we must divide by two the number of people that we welcome, that's to say to pass from 180,000 per year to 100,000," he said.

He also unveiled plans to limit some welfare benefits currently available to immigrant workers to those who have enjoyed residency for ten years and have worked for five of those.

Mr Sarkozy had already sparked controversy ahead of last night's programme by calling for all kosher and halal products to be labelled to inform consumers whether food is prepared in accordance with Islamic and Jewish law.

The proposal followed Miss Le Pen's claims that kosher and halal meat is being sold in French supermarkets with no notification to customers.

Mr Sarkozy believes securing the far-Right vote is the only way to gain sufficient momentum to finish ahead of Mr Hollande in round one of elections on April 22 and in a second round run-off on May 6.

But the food labelling proposals have been sharply criticised by leading representatives of France's Jewish and Muslim communities and split his own Right-wing UMP party.

Alain Juppé, the foreign minister, criticised the debate as a "false problem" while François Fillon, the prime minister fuelled controversy by urging Muslims and Jews to abandon the notion of halal and kosher foods outright, saying they were outdated.

Mr Sarkozy's push Right came as a fresh poll suggested Mr Hollande had widened his lead in round one to 30 per cent support, up two percentage points, while Mr Sarkozy gained one point to 28 per cent.

But Mr Hollande enjoys a wide lead over Mr Sarkozy in round two, the CSA poll found, beating him by 54 per cent to 46 per cent, unchanged from the previous month.

Another poll found that 74 per cent of French people said their mind was made up concerning Mr Sarkozy.

Miss Le Pen, head of the far-Right National Front, fell back two percentage points to 15 per cent support in the first round, while leftist Front de Gauche candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon gained 1 point to 10 per cent.

The poll found that a large majority of French voters were disappointed by a campaign, complaining of too much mud-slinging and not enough emphasis on policy.

Last night, Mr Sarkozy once again laid into his Socialist rival, saying he was surprised he was their candidate as he had "never led anything" and "doesn't know how to say no".

Mr Sarkozy's popularity rose slightly after his official campaign launch in which he promised to be the president of the people against elites, countering claims he has spent five years being the "president of the rich".

But Mr Hollande gained ground with a surprise pledge to introduce a 75 per cent income tax rate for those earning more than €1 million (£830,000) a year – a move 61 per cent of the French back, one poll found.

With voters' mind increasingly made up, Le Parisien newspaper wrote: "The result of the election is a foregone conclusion". Libération, the left-wing daily, said that the French had "solidly and profoundly fallen out of love with the outgoing President".

All eyes are now on a huge rally in Villepinte near Paris on Sunday before up to 60,000 supporters – which his camp hopes will set him back on course.

The black market thugs hired by regime to stop Chinese protesters

As some 10,000 protestors attempt to reach Beijing this week to bring their cases to the attention of the Chinese government, a vast industry has sprung up to try to stop them.

Security guards patrol prior to a press conference by Li Zhaoxing, a spokesman for China's national parliament

On a snowy morning in Beijing, over 1,000 plain-clothed thugs, all with similar cropped haircuts and dark windbreakers, are gathered outside one of the city's vast government compounds.

This is the State Petitions Office, the last port of call for China's most desperate or foolhardy protestors. Anyone brave enough to come here, however, has to run the gauntlet of intimidating "black security officers" outside.

As the Daily Telegraph watched, one woman on her way to the office to submit her complaint was bundled screaming, in full sight of the police, into the back of a minivan and driven off. The number plate read: Jiangsu G-2627-A.

Silencing protest is now a huge business in China, and this week is one of the busiest in the calendar. Today (MON), China will open its annual parliamentary meetings, the National People's Congress (NPC)

and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Together, the "Two Meetings" as they are colloquially known, will draw 5,000 or so politicians and delegates from every corner of the country to rubber-stamp legislation and network with each other.

However, the event, which resembles a party political convention, is a magnet for protestors, especially this year, which is illuminated by the once-in-a-decade unveiling of a new generation of leaders in the Autumn.

Some of protestors coming the capital believe in the benevolence and wisdom of Beijing's officials. Others want to embarrass their local politicians on their trip to the capital. Almost none of them, according to lawyers, will ever have their cases resolved.

But since 2005, the promotion prospects of local officials have been tied to how many petitioners complain on their watch. So an industry has evolved to try to stop any problems from reaching the ears of Beijing.

Thousands of "black" security guards have arrived in Beijing from the provinces to intercept petitioners outside the capital's hot spots: Tiananmen Square, the United States Embassy, the State Petitions Office and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

They work together with the police, and with officials inside the government, to try to erase any dissent. At the State Petitions Office, it is possible to pay to delete the records of petitions from the computer system, according to several sources.

"Because these records affect a local leader's promotion, there is a chain of interest. It costs 3,000 yuan (£300) to 5,000 yuan to remove each petitioner's complaint," said one investigative Chinese journalist, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The Daily Telegraph secretly recorded three of these plain-clothed security men just a few paces from the door of the UNDP office on Liangmahu South street. All three were heavy-set and had recently arrived from the North East of China to drag back any protestors.

"Petitioning is useless. I have no sympathy for these people. If they do not listen to us, we just beat them," said one man, named Mr Yu.

Another, named Mr Xu, said the police at Maizidian station called him to let him know when they detain protestors from his province. "I pay them 500 yuan or 1000 yuan as a telephone fee," he said. "In Sanlitun district we have to pay 2000 yuan or 3000 yuan to get each petitioner released to us," he added.

One man outside the UN worked for a state-owned chemical company, he said. The bosses at his firm are also judged on whether people complain about their activities. "Our company sent 30 people here," he said. "We have at least three or four people in each hot spot."

Behind the South East corner of Tiananmen Square, petitioners foolish enough to protest in Beijing's most sensitive and heavily policed spot are held in a holding pen at the local police station, just around the corner from Maison Boulud, one of the capital's finest foreign restaurants.

In the evening, a succession of vehicles arrive to drag them back to their own province. Those who are not collected are sent to Jiujingzhuang, a holding warehouse in the south of the city.

From there, local officials can collect the beleaguered petitioners, paying as much as 7,000 yuan to 9,000 yuan per head for the privilege, according to Wang Xuezhen, a 30-year-old activist who went to collect her father-in-law from the pen last year.

"I have been held in Jiujingzhuang four or five times," said Li Huijiang, a 51-year-old petitioner from Henan on his 15th annual trip to Beijing. "Each province has its own room in the warehouse, and they come to collect us from there. The treatment there is good: I was given a steamed bun and some pickles to eat. But then they took me to a â black' hotel, a room in Lizeqiao where I was held for five to six days."

China now spends as much on internal security as it does on the People's Liberation Army, and the costs of maintaining the undercover agents during the NPC are staggering. For each petitioner, three to four people are needed to watch them around the clock, with each requiring, on top of their wages, a budget for food, transport and lodging.

A rough, and conservative calculation, would add up to around 20 million yuan per day.